Illinois does not ask you to register, notify anyone, or seek approval. What it does ask is easy to miss, and it is written into the exemption itself rather than into any form.
Under 105 ILCS 5/26-1, a child is exempt from compulsory attendance when attending a private school where children are taught the branches of education taught to children of corresponding age and grade in the public schools, and where instruction is in English. Two conditions, both about the teaching, neither about paperwork.
The legal footing is older than most parents expect. In People v. Levisen (1950) the Illinois Supreme Court held that a home school qualifies as a private school, and put it plainly: the object of the law is that all children shall be educated, not that they shall be educated in any particular manner or place.
The paper trail: their form or your letter
Most Illinois districts keep a withdrawal form at the school office. Illinois does not require you to use it, and you may withdraw by letter instead. The choice is worth thirty seconds of thought because the two produce different records.
The district form is faster and the office knows what to do with it. It may also ask where your child is going, sometimes with a dropdown that does not include an option matching your situation. You are not obliged to name a receiving school to withdraw.
Your own letter takes longer to be processed and says exactly what you want recorded. If you write one, keep it to four things:
- Your child’s full name and date of birth
- The effective date of withdrawal
- That your child will be attending a private school, with instruction in English, covering the branches of education taught at the corresponding grade, tracking the language of 26-1
- A request for the student records: unofficial transcript, current grades, immunization records, and any IEP or 504 documentation
Either way, ask that a copy go into the student record and keep one yourself with the date.
The authority: who receives it
The school your child currently attends. The principal or the school office.
Nothing goes to the Illinois State Board of Education. Illinois offers nonpublic schools a registration with ISBE, and it is voluntary rather than required, so there is no state list your family needs to appear on and no agency waiting to hear from you.
In larger districts the office that processes withdrawals may not be the office your child’s teacher reports to. If you hand deliver, ask who processes it and get your copy stamped on the spot.
The timeline: no deadline, and a number worth knowing
There is no filing deadline, because there is no filing. The number that matters is on the attendance side, and Illinois states it as a percentage rather than a count, which is why families rarely realise how small it is.
Under 105 ILCS 5/26-2a, a child absent without valid cause for more than 1% of the previous 180 school days is a truant. At 5% or more, the child is a chronic or habitual truant.
Five percent of 180 days is nine days. A little under two school weeks of unexplained absence moves a child into the chronic category, and the first threshold arrives at roughly two days. A family that withdrew in good faith and sent nothing can cross the first line in the same week they decided.
That is the whole argument for withdrawing formally on day one rather than at the end of the week.
What to collect before you go
Ask for records while your child is still enrolled. The unofficial transcript, a current grade report, immunization records, and any IEP or 504 documentation. Schools produce these routinely for an enrolled student and more slowly once the file is closed.
If a semester is in progress, ask specifically how partial credit will be reported. It is the detail families discover missing months later, when a receiving school is assembling a transcript and the earned half of a course has quietly vanished.
What Illinois actually expects afterward
The two conditions in 26-1 are the whole of it: instruction in English, covering the branches of education taught at your child’s grade in the public schools. No testing, no portfolio, no annual report, no home visit.
Nobody audits this in the ordinary course. It matters because those two conditions are the description your exemption rests on, and because they are a floor rather than a ceiling.
Families who enroll in a school rather than assembling a curriculum have both conditions answered by the program. A student at High School of America works through a full course sequence in English with a transcript the school maintains, so the question of whether the instruction matches the corresponding grade answers itself.
Our counselors read the incoming transcript, tell you which credits carry over, and give you a graduation plan before you commit to anything. Illinois families most often arrive mid year, after a placement stopped working and waiting for June stopped being realistic, so enrollment runs year round.
Common questions
Do I have to register with the Illinois State Board of Education?
No. ISBE registration for nonpublic schools is voluntary. There is no notice of intent, no enrollment form, and no state approval process.
Does the school have to accept my letter?
A school cannot require its own form for an exemption that exists in statute. Deliver the letter, ask for it to be placed in the student record, and keep your dated copy. If the conversation becomes difficult, note who you gave it to and when.
What if they ask which school my child is transferring to?
You may answer, and you are not required to in order to withdraw. Some district forms assume a transfer to another district school and offer no other option.
How many absences before this becomes a problem?
Nine unexcused days out of 180 makes a child a chronic or habitual truant. The lower threshold, plain truancy, starts at roughly two days.
Can I withdraw mid year?
Yes. Illinois sets no window. The considerations are practical: partial credit and records.
Is there testing?
Illinois requires no standardized testing of private school or home school students.
The short version
Withdraw formally on the day your child stops attending, by the district’s form or a letter of your own. Say that your child will attend a private school, in English, covering the branches of education taught at the corresponding grade. Request the transcript, grades, immunization records, and any IEP or 504 documents in the same breath. Keep a dated copy. Nothing goes to the state, and nine unexcused days is closer than it sounds.
If what you are really weighing is what comes after the withdrawal, the Illinois program page covers enrollment, credit transfer, and how the diploma works.